Consciousness

Consciousness

Consciousness (/ˈkɒnʃəsnɪs/) is the state or quality of awareness, or, of being aware of an external object or something within oneself. It has been defined as: sentience, awareness, subjectivity, the ability to experience or to feel, wakefulness, having a sense of selfhood or soul, the fact that there is something "that it is like" to "have" or "be" it, and the executive control system of the mind.

Etymology

The origin of the modern concept of consciousness is often attributed to John Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding, published in 1690. Locke defined consciousness as "the perception of what passes in a man's own mind".

Related Terms

• Self-awareness: The capacity for introspection and the ability to recognize oneself as an individual separate from the environment and other individuals.
• Sentience: The capacity to feel, perceive, or experience subjectively.
• Subjectivity: The condition of being a subject and the subject's perspective, experiences, feelings, beliefs, and desires.
• Wakefulness: A daily recurring brain state and state of consciousness in which an individual is conscious and engages in coherent cognitive and behavioral responses to the external world.
• Selfhood: The quality that constitutes one's individuality; the state of having an individual identity.

References

External links

• Medical encyclopedia article on Consciousness
• Wikipedia's article - Consciousness

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